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Book to Movie Review: The Hunger Games Midnight Premiere

I was proudly present at the midnight showing of The Hunger Games, nestled between a group of about 25+ college age guys. It caught me by surprise when I walked into the theater to take claim on my "stolen but perfect" seats for the night... there were loads of guys. I have gone to most of the midnight shows for Twilight and a few others in the past and it has been a LARGE group of women sporting their "team" shirts... but that was not the case for THG, it was an even split between guys and gals.

I must also note how excited my husband was to watch the midnight viewing, just how excited? Well, he got off a 12 hour shift from the hospital and bee-lined it for his sisters' house where he was staying and then began to taunt text me things like "I am going to Target to get a bow and arrow" or "this has to be way better than watching Jacob running around half naked"... complete crack up!

Review:

The movie was AWESOME! It was better than I imagined it while I was reading the book. They kept all the important details and I absolutely LOVED the casting... Cato, Cinna and Haymitch were fabulous! Katniss (Jennifer Lawerence) was great and really played her role well. And I have to mention the Girl on Fire Dress... so impressive! I could not believe how cool they made that scene, the dress was stunning and Katniss owned it.

And I must say I AM STILL TEAM PEETA ALL THE WAY! Josh Hutcherson (Peeta) did not disappoint. I had my doubts and even thought about jumping to the dark side of Team "I hate the World" Gale but I am not wavering any longer!

Booya Kelli! PEETA FOREVER!

As with all reviews, I did have a few minor dislikes.

It was so flipping shaky for the first third of the movie... I felt a little dizzy. I don't like films that are attempting to make you "feel" like you are a part of the action. I was busy trying to focus my eyes so I could appreciate all the perfect attention to detail.

At the end of the book Peeta is really broken hearted when he finds out that Katniss thought everything was staged and that she really didn't have feelings for him. But the movie just didn't do it for me... I wanted the broken heart! That is a big part of what gets the emotions rolling in Catching Fire. But I still have hope, maybe they will make it up in the adaptation of Catching Fire.

4 comments:

Completely agree, Natalie. I went back to see it a 2nd time on IMAX and sat at the top. It was much better. I could actually semi-see what was going on and didn't get so dizzy. I was worried about Josh as Peeta, but like you he completely won me over. He was fantastic. I've always been firmly team Peeta and when I heard Liam was ging to be Gale, I was like uh-oh because he's so beautiful, I didn't want him to sway me to team Gale. I still think he's beautiful, but I'm very impressed with Josh as Peeta.

Yes! I am SO with you. The film doesn't convey Peeta's emotions nor the details of what really is going on between Peeta and Katniss. That to me is it's only failing. I felt like Gale's emotions transferred but Peeta's didn't.